Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Clippings:
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost - November 12, 2017

Saint Dominiccontemplating the Scriptures

Author's note:Sometimes I have material left over when I edit Comments down to
fit the available space. This page presents notes that landed on the clipping
room floor. Some may be useful to you. While I avoid technical language
in the Comments (or explain special terms), Clippings may have unexplained
jargon from time to time.

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply
click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear
with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the
same way.

Joshua 24:1-3a,14-25

Joshua fulfils the covenant of Moses in Deuteronomy
11;
27;
31. See
8:30-35 for related material. This section forms a fitting conclusion to the
book: all Israel unite under Joshua’s leadership in the service of
Yahweh. [
NOAB] [
NJBC]

Verse 1: “Shechem”: This is modern Tell Balata. It became
an important Israelite cultic and political centre. It was one of the few major cities
in Canaan not described as destroyed by the Israelites, so it seems that its incorporation
into Israel was accomplished without a battle; however, see the perhaps allegorical
tale in Genesis
34 (the rape of Dinah by Shechem, son of Hamor). For Abraham at Shechem, see
Genesis
12:6; for Jacob there, see Genesis
33:18-20. The site of Shechem was continuously occupied from the Late Bronze
Age into the early Iron Age. [
NOAB] [
CAB] [
NJBC]

Verse 1: “summoned the elders ... of Israel”: The wording
is almost identical to
23:2. [
NJBC]

Verses 2-13: Note that this summary of God’s interventions on Israel’s
behalf mentions neither the events at Sinai nor his guidance in the wilderness. [
NOAB] While generally similar to other accounts of
Yahweh’s actions on behalf of his people, it uses unique terminology (“darkness”,
v.
7) and refers to worship of other gods by Israel’s ancestors in both Mesopotamia
and Egypt. (That Israel worshipped other gods in Egypt is also mentioned in Ezekiel
20:5-8 and
23:30-33, but it is not mentioned in the
Pentateuch.) Note the absence of an altar, unlike in other covenant ceremonies
(see
8:30-31 and Deuteronomy
27:6) and of sacrifice (Exodus
24:3-8; Deuteronomy
27:7). Most remarkably, Israel is given a choice not to worship
Yahweh. Although this element is present in Deuteronomy
30:19, it is much more prominent here. See also 1 Kings
18:21. These verses appear to be from a tradition which is not represented elsewhere.
[
NJBC]

Verses 2-4: A summary of Genesis
12-50, but without reference to the stories about Joseph. [
NJBC]

Verse 7: Note the shift from
Yahweh speaking to third-person narrative. The NRSV follows the
Masoretic Text in reverting to “I” in v.
8 while the
Septuagint continues with “they” to v.
13. This is evidence of a complicated editing history which cannot be disentangled
with any certainty. There is a similar shift in 1 Samuel
12:11. [
NJBC]

Verses 9-10: The Balaam incident is recalled here differently from the
account in Numbers
22. [
NOAB] Nowhere else is a battle with Balak recorded: see Deuteronomy
2:9 and Judges
11:25. Further, the reference to God as “he” is anomalous in this
context. That Balaam sought to curse Israel is found only here. (The Israelites did
indeed kill Balaam: see
13:22.) [
NJBC]

Verse 11: “citizens”: The Hebrew literally means masters
. Per
2:2-3;
10:1,
28,
30;
12:9, Jericho had a king, so not mentioning him here shows that this verse is
from a different tradition. [
NJBC]

Verse 11: “Jericho”: The recollection of how Jericho fell
is different here from the account in Joshua
6. [
NOAB]

Verse 12: “two kings”: God’s help in defeating the Amorites
has already been mentioned in v.
8. The
Septuagint translation has twelve kings here. The two kings were Sihon and Og.
These two kings are mentioned in various verses in Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and
elsewhere. [
NJBC]

Verse 15: “choose”: A choice between God and other gods is
also offered by Elijah in 1 Kings
18:21. Elsewhere, false gods are chosen: see Judges
1:1-3:6 and Isaiah
41:24. Here, surprisingly, the choice is an open one. [
NJBC]

Verse 15: “in whose land you are living”: This is in contrast
with Chapters
1-12, but as in Judges
1:1-3:6, the Amorites still occupy (and control) much of
Palestine. [
NJBC]

Verse 19: “he is a holy God”:
Yahweh is “holy” in that he does not permit worship of other deities.
[
NJBC]

Verse 19: “jealous”: The exact form of the Hebrew word only
occurs elsewhere in Nahum
1:2: “A jealous and avenging God is the
Lord, the Lord is avenging and
wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance
on his adversaries and rages against his enemies”. See also Exodus
20:25;
34:14; Deuteronomy
4:24;
6:15. [
NJBC]

Verse 22: “witnesses”: Usually “witnesses” were
third parties, but here they are participants in the pact. In international treaties,
they were the gods of the two nations. This is a succinct summary of
deuteronomic theology. Witnesses to legal agreements are also mentioned in Ruth
4:9-10 and Genesis
23:17. [
NJBC]

Verse 23: “put away the foreign gods”: Almost the same words
as in Genesis
35:2 (Jacob). This verse resumes the command begun in v.
14. [
NJBC]

Verse 26: “the book of the law of God”: The exact wording
occurs elsewhere only in Nehemiah
8:18. Elsewhere in Joshua the teaching is either explicitly or implicitly that
of Moses. [
NJBC]

Verse 26: “a large stone”: Here the stone is simply a memorial
to the covenant, another “witness” (v.
27), but in
8:32 stones have a different role: “Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of
the law of Moses”. That the Hebrew word translated “stone” is
‘eben (any stone) rather than masseba (a standing stone) probably
avoided violation of Deuteronomy
16:21-22: “You shall not plant any tree as a sacred pole beside the altar
that you make for the LORD your God; nor shall you set up a stone pillar –
things that the Lord your God hates.”
Sacred poles were part of Canaanite religion. [
NJBC]

Verse 26: “the oak”: Not just any oak, but the well-known
oak mentioned in Genesis
12:6 (“Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak
of Moreh”); Genesis
35:4 (Jacob); Deuteronomy
11:30; Judges
9:6 (site of Abimelech’s coronation). It is especially the tree of Genesis
35:4, a terebinth that is alluded to. Joshua is thus linked with Moses and the
ancestral tradition. [
NJBC]

Verse 27: “a witness”: Stones were also witnesses to Jacob’s
covenant with Laban (see Genesis
31:44-53) and in the Sinai covenant ceremony (see Exodus
24:4) and of the altar in
22:34. [
NJBC]

Psalm 78:1-7

Other psalms used at major festivals were
105;
106;
135 and
136. All recite the history of God’s dealings with Israel. This psalm emphasizes
the disobedience and ingratitude of the people, especially noting the defection of
the Ephraimites (vv.
9-10, an event not found elsewhere in the Old Testament) which led God to reject
them in favour of Judah (vv.
66-69). [
NOAB] Shechem was in Ephraim. This psalm therefore explains why Jerusalem became
the proper religious centre, rather than Shechem.

It is extremely difficult to date this psalm. It may be as early as the reign
of Solomon, and could be post-exilic. It could also have been written during the
reforms of Josiah. A similar survey of salvation history is found in 1QS 1:18-24.
[
JBC] [
NJBC]

1QS (Qumran Community Rule) 1:18-24 says:

... When
they enter the covenant, the priests and the Levites shall bless the God of salvation
and all the works of his faithfulness and all those who enter the covenant shall
repeat after them: ‘Amen, Amen’. The priests shall recite the just deeds
of God in his mighty works, and they shall proclaim all his merciful favours towards
Israel. And the Levites shall recite the sins of the children of Israel, all their
blameworthy transgressions and their sins during the dominion of Belial. [
Martinez]

Belial is the devil.

The cycle is:

The people sin

God punishes them.

The people repent

God delivers/saves them - and so back to the first bullet.

Verses 1-4: The poet addresses the community in the style of the
wisdom writers. [
NOAB] See also
49:1-2, which
NJBC says is clearly a wisdom psalm.

Verse 2: Jesus cites this verse with reference to his teaching in Matthew
13:35. [
NJBC]

In Greek, this passage is four sentences, each of which forms a section: vv.
13,
14,
15-17,
18.

Verse 13: “those who have died”: Literally those who have
fallen asleep: thus the NRSV footnote. The Greek word is found in the
Septuagint translation of Psalm
13:4. See also Matthew
9:24, Jesus’ explanation of the state of the daughter of a leader of the
synagogue: “for the girl is not dead but sleeping”. See also John
11:11, where Jesus says “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am
going there to awaken him.” Asleep is a common New Testament description
of physical death. [
NOAB] [
NJBC]

Verse 15: “by the word of the Lord”: i.e. by authorized revelation,
not Paul’s personal opinion. [
NOAB] See also
4:2 (“... you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus”);
Luke 14:14; John 5:28-29.

Verse 15: Comments: He includes himself among those who will
still be alive: That he expects to still be alive when Christ comes again suggests
that this letter was written before that to the Philippians, for there he wonders
whether he will be put to death before the second coming. See Philippians
1:22-24. [
CAB]

Verse 16: In Matthew
24:30-31, Jesus says “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory. And he will send out
his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other”. [
NOAB]

Verse 16: “with the sound of God’s trumpet”: The sound
of the trumpet heralding the end of time is found in the Old Testament in Isaiah
27:13; Joel
2:1,
15; Zechariah
9:14 and also in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians
15:52; Matthew
24:31; Revelation
11:15;
14;
17;
19;
20. [
CAB]

Verse 16: “will descend from heaven”: In Mark
13:26, Jesus says: “‘Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming
in clouds’ with great power and glory’” and in Luke
17:24 he says: “‘For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky
from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day’”. [
CAB]

Verse 16: “first”: Apocalyptic descriptions usually portray
the
end-time victory as a procession.

Verse 17: “we will be with the Lord forever”: The reality
of ultimate salvation is being with the Lord. See also v.
14 and Matthew
25:46; 2 Corinthians
5:8; Philippians
1:23; 1 Thessalonians
5:10. [
NJBC] [
CAB]

Verse 17: “clouds ... in the air”: In
apocalyptic literature, the usual avenue to and from heaven. Telling of a vision,
Daniel says in Daniel
7:13: “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being
coming with the clouds of heaven ...”. The Aramaic translated as “human
being” literally means son of man.

Verse 18: A call to mutual encouragement is also found in
5:11. [
NJBC]

Matthew 25:1-13

Nuptial imagery, used in Song of Songs, was applied by the rabbis to the relationship
between God and his people. See also
9:14-15 and
22:1-14. [
NJBC]

Verse 1: “bridesmaids”: The Greek word, parthenos,
literally means virgins. Considering that the bride is never mentioned, the
ten may well be brides. If so, polygamy is in view. To
NJBC, the represent the disciples and/or expectant believers: Paul writes in
2 Corinthians
11:2: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage
to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”.

Verse 1: Jesus also advises preparedness for the kingdom in Luke
12:35-38 and Mark
13:34.

Verse 1: “the bridegroom”: He is a natural symbol for God,
stemming from the Old Testament concept of God as the husband of his people. See,
for example, Isaiah
54:4-6; Ezekiel
16:7-34; Hosea
2:19. [
Blomberg]

Verse 2: “foolish ... wise”: These labels recall
7:24-27 (building on rock rather than on sand);
23:17,
19;
24:45. The wisdom in view is a practical one about salivation. [
NJBC]

Verse 8: “oil”: Oil is a frequent symbol in earlier Hebrew
literature for joy and for anointing a priest or king. In this parable, it likely
represents anything an individual must do in order to be ready to meet the Lord.
Preparedness, like oil in this parable, cannot be shared. [
Blomberg] To
NJBC, the oil stands for good works (an idea found in many older commentaries);
they are not completely transferable.

Verse 10: Revelation
19:9 says: “... the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those
who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’”.